I'm a respiratory therapist that currently does some basic sleep apnea testing. Here are some basics:
-The CPAP machine will take a few weeks to get used to. Don't give up, give it at least a month.
-CPAP is the gold standard of treatment for obstructive sleep apnea. There are alternatives like dental appliances and some airway surgeries but none are as effective as CPAP.
-There are 2 types of sleep apnea: central and obstructive. Obstructive is much more common. When you sleep the muscles in your airway relax, the tissue in your airway obstructs the airway, causing no airflow.
-central sleep apnea is neurological. Your brain fails to tell your body to breathe. This type is very rare and treatment is a bipap machine, which is a machine that forces you to actually breathe, much like a ventilator.
-a CPAP machine on the other hand is forcing a small amount of pressure in your airway to prevent the occlusion and the keep your airway open while you sleep
-severe sleep apnea is very hard on your cardiovascular system. Your heart is working much harder than it should to make up for the fact that you are essentially not breathing for periods of your sleep. As you fail to breathe, the oxygen levels in your blood (and tissues-brain, heart) drop dangerously low.
-with obstructive sleep apnea, you are constantly waking up during the night. Some of my patients haven't gotten a good nights sleep in years. This will obviously lead to exhaustion and psychological problems like depression.
-for those who get used to the CPAP machine, the biggest thing they notice is they feel energised because they are finally getting a good nights sleep
-obstructive sleep apnea is much more common in obese and overweight patients because of all the extra tissue they have around their airway. However I have seen skinny dudes with severe OSA. It just depends on your airway anatomy.
Hope that helps with the basics. Try it out for a month or two.
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